Back to the Boneyard – Announcing the 2018 Boneyard Build-Off!

By coryem, Apr 4, 2018

Make It Dayton is happy to announce that once again, the showpiece of the 2018 Dayton Mini Maker Faire will once again be the Boneyard Build-Off! This DIY battle royale is entering its third year as a cornerstone of the event. The Boneyard Build-Off is the ultimate maker competition, where teams of local tinkerers have less than 10 hours to design, build and test their solution to the Boneyard Challenge using only materials scavenged from Mendelsons!

In our first year, two teams competed in a challenge to build small, one passenger vehicles that would go fast, haul a lot of junk, and look really, really cool. The winning vehicle was created by the Blue team: Christian Moist, Mark Carroll, David Wirth and Michael Castor.

Last year, the challenge was selected by popular vote at an event at Proto BuildBar from a field of four challenges inspired by Dayton innovators from history. The chosen challenge was Project Haas, to design and construct a water balloon launcher over the course of the Make Faire weekend. The project was named after Dayton plumbing innovator Philip Haas. The winning launcher had to meet the following parameters:

Balloons must exit the device before bursting

Launchers should be usable against a human

Launchers should look cool

Launchers must be targetable

We had 4 teams competing for the coveted Boneyard Medals, the Constant Variables, Bam Done, Dayton Diode, Team Little Fox and BONDS. The Constant Variables emerged victorious, a second win for Christian Moist and Michael Castor with new teammate Chas Clark.

What will this year’s Boneyard Challenge be? We’ll announce it one week before the 2018 Dayton Mini Maker Faire! In the meantime, gather up your maker crew and register your team to compete in the 2018 Boneyard Build-Off. Teams will be accepted now through July 4. To participate, teams must demonstrate a wide range of skills, be able to provide at least basic tools for their crew, and have at least 2 members. Youth participants may be accepted, with appropriate adult supervision on the team. Your team can apply here.

Itching to see more Boneyard Build-Off goodness? Check out these videos!